Religious parents make getting in trouble sound hilarious.

So today my 10 year old brother got in trouble because his teacher called and told my parents that he dropped the F-bomb on a piece of paper. They had him in the living room and sent my other 2 brothers and I to our rooms. Mine is right outside the living room so I heard the whole thing.

Apparently "God" is listening to him and he'll carry this horrible sin of writing a cussword for the rest of his life. They then used the church fear tactic of "God punishes you for all your sins so you're gonna pay for it eventually. God will make it catch up to you because he's always listening." They sound ridiculous considering he's already paying for it with a two month long grounding.

They then continued on by saying cussing is a big sin and that whatever comes out of your mouth is in your heart, and that he needs to pay lots more attention in church or he'll keep "falling into the filth of the world". I'm too young to be a parent but I'm pretty sure that's no way to inform a 10 year old that he's committed a MINOR misdeed. Of course, they're Christians so the rules don't apply to them and they deal with children the Christian way, the way "Jesus would do it".

I was mad that they ended up making him cry over one cussword that he didn't even say, he WROTE it. But their Jesus speech about cussing and cleansing your heart of the world's filth caused uncontrollable laughter and I had to run upstairs with the other two boys.

Did anyone else have/had parents like that who made getting in trouble hilarious yet aggravating due to overreactions like these?

Not from my parents but the minister, lay minister, deacons and even some of the parishioners were quick to point out your sins and how it would land you in hell. I remember a Sunday school teacher constantly warning us about the sin of dancing.

No, churchgoing was a serious matter, but my parents were not like this. Punishment was physical with no added religious commentary. I'm just glad you're objective and rational about the whole thing. Be kind and supportive to your brothers. One day tell them what you think -- as long as you're sure they won't "go back and tell" on you.

Nathan makes a good point: you may at some time be able to help your brothers develop some perspective in all this. Being both older and a girl gives you a different way of seeing some things. You don't want to risk losing your parents' good graces, but you might be able to say something like "Not everybody thinks what you did is so horrible." Be careful and don't take chances, but if he or another brother really begins to obsess over this sort of thing, you could really be a great help.

Ugh, so sorry for the ugly religious "fear of god" speak. That would be the literal child abuse by religion.

I'm sure it's a different dynamic in every household. The way I would handle it is to tell the youngster the truth:

"Swearing happens. It happens and we KNOW it's going on. We EXPECT YOU not to abuse the swear words (or better to not use them at all). People who overdue the swearing are unintelligent and trying to hard to make themselves more noticeable. -You understand that? THAT IS NOT YOU. Our family only uses swear words when they're called for, and technically that's NEVER. But in extreme situations they do come out. So carry on, and DO NOT disappoint us. -you're better than that ok."

Actually I've already had this talk with my girls. Parents are FOOLING themselves (par for the religious) if they think their kids have virgin ears and tongues. The kids must hear swears 10 times a day and all the time. The trick is to convey that there's a proper time and place for it.

Words carry ideas. By making certain words taboo, a group of people can implicitly get a consensus that there exist ideas that are bad to even consider. Usually, the profanity is tied to a specific action or way of identifying people. The religious are not the only ones that exercise thought control by designating a word as profane. Humanist would count racial epithets as a form of profanity. In many instances, the one who uses the prohibited words is viewed as less educated or less sophisticated than those who don't use those words. This view is present regardless of whether or not the observer agrees with the ideas that make these words profane. The last reason listed is the only reason that I have found compelling, in the past, to not use these words. However, as I get older and a little more secure, I find my self caring less about what other people think of me. My language reflects this as well.